Another sad Swan Lake tale

State Rep. Larry Seaquist and state Sen. Derek Kilmer, both Democrats from Gig Harbor, are looking to ease restrictions on trafficking the birds so that a Gig Harbor homeowners association can obtain a second swan for a private lake.

State wildlife officials have banned the sale and ownership of mute swans since 1991. They are deemed “deleterious exotic wildlife” because officials say they destroy wetlands and occasionally attack people and other animals.

That’s nonsense, say homeowners in Gig Harbor’s Sylvia Lake community, who have kept a pair of mute swans on their lake for more than 20 years to ward off Canada geese.

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The residents have spent two years trying to replace one of the swans, which died in December 2007.

The state allowed the homeowners to keep the old swans because they were brought in before 1991. But replacing one of the birds is out of the question without a change in law.

“This is our last resort,” said Bill Higday, secretary of the Sylvia Lake homeowners association, which represents about 80 property owners. “Our efforts to sit down and talk with fish and wildlife officials have been totally unsuccessful.”

A hearing on the Senate version of the bill, SB 6255, will take place at 1:30 p.m. Monday. A hearing on the House version, HB 2476, is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sylvia Lake homeowners fear the remaining swan will soon die and the Canada geese will return to the lake, said Sarah Polyakov, who has lived in the Sylvia Lake community for 31/2 years.

The geese scare children and pollute the lake with their droppings, she said.

“We really just don’t want our pristine property ruined,” Polyakov said. “They make a mess and are very aggressive.”

She said she befriended the swan after his mate, Princess, died in 2007, and feeds him and sings to him regularly.

“He actually closes his eyes and bows his head and he looks like he’s meditating,” Polyakov said. “He’s very docile.”

Fish and wildlife officials see it differently.

“They cause a real problem for wetlands and native wildlife,” said Don Kraege, waterfowl section manager with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife “They can eat up to 8 pounds of vegetation a day, and they’ve even been known to attack people.”

The legislative bills would allow up to two mute swans on private lakes under 20 acres in size, as long as the birds are altered so they can’t reproduce and pinioned so they can’t fly away.

Seaquist, the sponsor of the House bill, said the swans do a great job of keeping the geese away and that homeowners should be able to keep them for that purpose.